NCP firm on disqualification of ‘three defectors’
Principal Correspondent
Kohima, June 25
Assembly Speaker Chotisuh Sazo said any action can be initiated under the Anti-Defection Law against the three NCP MLAs who defected to BJP. However, he asserted that proper consultations need to be held with legal luminaries before taking any action.
Even as the three former NCP MLAs claimed to have merged with BJP in the State, which has been accepted by the saffron party, the trio has not yet submitted their resignation papers either to the state unit or central NCP leaders in Delhi.
NCP state unit general secretary Miathou Krose told this correspondent that NCP National president Sarad Pawar, angered over the second such defection of the NCP legislators in the State, has issued suspension orders against the three – ex-president Imtilemba Sangtam, Dr. TM Lotha and Mmhonlumo Kikon. He also said Pawar’s letter was delivered to NLA Speaker Sazo wherein it was stated that ‘no decision was taken for merger of Nagaland unit NCP with BJP and that the NCP in Nagaland is still intact’.
Reiterating that the NCP is firm on its demand for disqualification of the three defected MLAs from the State Assembly, Krose said, “Our NCP Legal Cell in New Delhi has officially written to the Speaker of NLA to disqualify the three MLAs from the House.” As per the Anti-Defection Law or the Tenth Schedule, the final decision lies with the Speaker of the Assembly on disqualifying them.
Meanwhile, Speaker Sazo, talking to this correspondent over phone today, said he is yet to accept the merger of three out of the four NCP MLAs with the BJP in the State. “I am still studying the papers submitted by the three former NCP MLAs about their joining BJP,” he said.
Three NCP Nagaland Unit MLAs led by party president and MLA Imtilemba Sangtam, Parliamentary Secretary Dr TM Lotha and Mmhonlumo Kikon on June 16 formally declared to have merged with BJP.
“As the issue is a constitutional matter, I need to examine it thoroughly because of which I am consulting the legal and constitutional luminaries before taking any action,” he said.
Asked whether action could be initiated against the three under the provisions of Anti-Defection Law, he said, “Anything can happen. Therefore, proper consultation is being taken up.”
Further, even as the Speaker may not have formally accepted the three NCP MLAs’ merger with BJP, State unit BJP spokesperson James Vizo said his president Dr M Chuba Ao has taken two former NCP MLAs to New Delhi to introduce them to the party high command.
The joining of the three NCP MLAs have increased the strength of single seated BJP to four in the 60-member Nagaland Assembly while NCP has now been left with only one MLA.
